What Must I Do to Be Saved?

The most important question one can ask is: "What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30). However, in our religiously divided world, with so many denominations teaching their various and often conflicting doctrines and traditions of men (Matt 15:1-9), the simple Biblical answer is completely ignored. Instead, many respond to this all-important question by saying, "Ask Jesus to come into your heart and accept Him as your personal Saviour and you will be saved." Usually, there is some form of "sinner’s prayer" to be recited. It is believed that after such action, the inquisitor is saved at that very moment, having his sins forgiven. Do you know that not one person in the Bible was ever told to do this in order to be saved? In truth, the Bible explicitly denies the doctrine of faith only, for James wrote, "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only" (James 2:24, emp mine - JTC). Not one person was ever told to pray the "sinner’s prayer" in order to be saved. Though Peter did tell Simon to repent and pray for forgiveness in Acts 8:22, Simon had already obeyed the gospel (Acts 8:13). So what does the Bible say about what one must do to be saved?

God has given us a mind wherewith we may reason. He expects us to use our minds in matters of faith, doctrine, and practice (1 Thes 5:21; Acts 17:11; 1 John 4:1). We are commanded to study to show ourselves approved unto God, and to "rightly divide the Word of Truth." This verse implies that we can "wrongly divide" God’s Word. We know this can be done, for the Devil did it in Matthew 4 while tempting Jesus. I am not to rely on "what I feel in my heart," for the heart can deceive; "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer 17:9; cf. Pr 14:12).

The Bible is very clear on what one must do in order to become a child of God: One must hear the Word of God and believe it, "For faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom 10:17). This hearing of God’s Word must include the gospel, the story of Jesus’ life, His death on the cross for our sins, and His resurrection: "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Cor 15:1-4).

Knowing that Jesus was killed for our sins and is now alive makes the judgment a fearful reality. This is why those present on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 were "cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?" (v. 37). Note the answer given by Peter, (as opposed to that of the denominational world today as earlier mentioned), "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins . . ." (v. 38). The text continues by saying, "And with many other words he both exhorted and testified saying, ‘Save yourselves from this crooked generation.’ And those who gladly received his word were baptized, and there was added unto them that day about three thousand souls" (vv. 40-41).

The book of Acts is often called the book of conversions because it records how people became Christians in the first century. The common thread running among every conversion account is the hearing and believing of the gospel, and responding in obedient faith by being baptized in order to receive forgiveness of sins (Acts 8:12; 8:35-40; 18:8). What was true for the people of that day is true for men today. We, like the disciples of old, must continue in the apostles’ doctrine (Acts 2:42).

Friend, the only way to become a Christian is to obey the gospel (Mark 16:15-16; 1 Peter 1:22-23). Have you done as those in the first century? If not, please give serious consideration to the condition of your soul (2 Cor 13:5)!